co2 kegging

Does the Co2 need to be food grade gas?I see a lot of paintball tanks out there,I can't believe these are food grade gas refills.Where do a lot of you keggers get your refills at in the Cleveland Ohio area?

CO2 normally is from a fire extinguisher place or a welding shop. I know my LHBS fills at a fire place where my brother in law works. CO2 is CO2. It is not a mix and I do not think there is "food grade" CO2.

Actually there is food grade CO2 but there is a pretty good debate on whether or not to use it. There are many proponents but there are also deniers. I didn't know about food grade prior to my last exchange. But it was only $18 (also a different supplier) and has made me wonder if I've been using food grade or not. But I've gassed several cornies with the latest tank with no noticeable effects. I guess we'll see what others have to say about it.

Airgas is now selling foodgrade CO2 for homebrewers. :rockin:

The salesman told me that it's the same gas though.:cross:

I get my 5 gallon c02 tank refilled at a local soda and beer distributor for $10.00. Here is there website: www.pricketts.com. But I'm not sure how much use it is to you since you are probably half way across the country. $10 is a great deal, Praxair charged me $20...once.

If I were you I'd go to a pub, sit down, order an IPA, get to shootin' the **** with the tender and ask who maintains their gear. Then go hit up that place. But make sure they're local, involved in the community and downright good Americans before you kickdown your hard-earned cash.

I bought some diet water this week. It was about twice the price as regular water but hey, it will help me lose weight.

I never heard anything so sh!tall stupid.

Water is water, right? Except some is pure enough to drink, and some is full of poisonous runoff, or sea salt.
Its the same with CO2- some is clean and pure, some is used for industrial applications.

Industrial CO2 often has machine oil added to keep valves from seizing up- not good for beer. Food grade, pure CO2 can be used for both however, provided the valves are otherwise accounted for.

Raenon said:

Industrial CO2 often has machine oil added to keep valves from seizing up.

Click to expand...

You have proof of this?

I work for Airgas and was involved in the mandated switch to all Food Grade for 20# cylinders and below. It does come from the same bulk tank but with the additional requirement of a daily batch analysis to meet Food Grade specifications and the extra step of pulling a vacuum on every tank before filling. The is an industry wide mandate that might not have filtered down to the "mom and pop" welding companies, yet.